We must rescue Ogun workers from Amosun —NLC President

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress has said it must rescue Ogun State workers from some alleged anti-labour practices of the state governor, Mr Ibikunle Amosun.

Mr Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President made the position of the Congress known in a statement on Friday night in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that there has been a confrontation between the state governor and the leadership of NLC over non-payment of workers’ salaries and arrears and the recent sack of the NLC state chairman by the governor.

The NLC leadership also accused Amosun of non-remittance of statutory deductions from workers’ salaries and his refusal to pay gratuities of retired state and local government workers since 2013.

Wabba said NLC was prepared for a showdown with the governor if attempts were made to “disgrace the NLC” during its rescheduled March 5, protest in the state, as reportedly threatened by him.

He said the decision to ‘confront and tackle’ Amosun had already been taken by the NLC at its 12th National Delegates Conference and that there was no going back on it.

“The leadership of the NLC has taken cognisance of a statement credited to the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, where he threatened to disgrace the leadership of the NLC if the Congress insists on embarking on a protest scheduled for Tuesday, March 5, 2019, in Ogun State.

“This was reported by Premium Times on 1st March 2019 and other platforms. Our Position is that The Nigeria Labour Congress has taken note of the threat by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

“But we want to assure him that his threats will not deter us from defending the interest of workers in Ogun State whose rights he has been trampling upon.

“This is especially on the following issues: the non-remittance of statutory deductions from workers’ salaries for pensions, cooperative, Ileya, Christmas etc over a period of one hundred and five (105) months,” he said.

He said that Amosun had refused to pay salary arrears of workers at the Tai Solarin College of Education, according to him, which has accumulated for the past ten years and now grosses to a financial liability of about N9 billion.

“We urge all our state councils especially those from the contiguous states to Ogun State – Lagos, Oyo, Osun states who are already fully mobilised for the protest not to be sacred one bit by the threats by Governor Ibikunle Amosun. We had dared and won worse tyrants,” Wabba said.